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1 – 10 of 95Kendra Dyanne Rivera and Sarah J. Tracy
“Dirty work” is an embodied, emotional activity, and may best be expressed through narrative thick description. The purpose of this paper is to employ creative analytic techniques…
Abstract
Purpose
“Dirty work” is an embodied, emotional activity, and may best be expressed through narrative thick description. The purpose of this paper is to employ creative analytic techniques through a “messy text” for better understanding the tacit knowledge and emotionality of dirty work and dirty research. The vignettes, based upon ethnographic fieldwork with US Border Patrol agents, viscerally reveal the embodied emotions of dirty work and doing dirty research.
Design/methodology/approach
The research draws on a two and a half year ethnography of the US Border Patrol in which the first author engaged in participant observation, shadowing, and interviews. Based upon the iterative data analysis and narrative writing techniques using verbatim quotations and field data, the essay provides a series of vignettes that explore the multi-faceted feelings of dirty work.
Findings
Tacit knowledge about dirty work is unmasked and known through experiences of the body as well as emotional reactions to the scene. A table listing the emotions that emerged in these stories supplements the narrative text. The analysis shows how communication about emotions provides a sense-making tool that, in turn, elucidates both the challenges and the potential highlights of doing dirty work. In particular, findings suggest that emotional ambiguity the “moral emotions” of guilt and shame may serve as sense-making tools that can help in ethical decision making and a re-framing of challenging situations.
Originality/value
A field immersion alongside dirty workers, coupled with a creative writing approach, provides access to the fleeting, embodied, and fragmented nature of tacit knowledge – answering the questions of what dirty work feels like. The essay provides a behind the scenes exploration of US Border Patrol agents – a profession that is alternately stigmatized or hidden from public view. Finally, the piece provides a self-reflexive account of the messy realities of conducting “dirty research” in a way that is open ended and embodied.
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Andra Gumbus, Christopher C. York and Carolyn A. Shea
Judy was a high-performing professional manager who was with her company for 15 years and was a manager for six. She was a confident, positive, and happy person but recently lost…
Abstract
Judy was a high-performing professional manager who was with her company for 15 years and was a manager for six. She was a confident, positive, and happy person but recently lost her confidence in herself and her abilities. She dreaded going to work because she never knew what she would face from her boss, Dennis. Dennis was a brilliant man who was recently promoted to Senior V.P. He was condescending, and he humiliated people in public. Complaints to the CEO and a harassment claim produced no results. Dennis did the CEO's dirty work and served a role needed in a fast-paced and profit-driven corporate culture. Judy enrolled in an MBA program to build her resume and her self-confidence. She faced a critical juncture in her career. Should she quit, transfer, complain to HR, or confront Dennis?
Sophie Dennard, Derek K. Tracy, Aaron Beeney, Laura Craster, Fiona Bailey, Anisah Baureek, Michael Barton, Jeanette Turrell, Sarah Poynton, Vafo Navkarov and Radha Kothari
Prisons are uniquely challenging working environments. Staff are often exposed to direct and indirect trauma, impacting negatively on their mental well-being. Due to the limited…
Abstract
Purpose
Prisons are uniquely challenging working environments. Staff are often exposed to direct and indirect trauma, impacting negatively on their mental well-being. Due to the limited research into prison staff experience, this paper aims to explore what staff find most challenging, how they cope, what support they would like and rewarding aspects of their work.
Design/methodology/approach
This service development project was facilitated through a staff well-being event. A qualitative approach was used and 74 staff members provided anonymised responses. An inductive and data-driven approach was used to analyse the data, and the trustworthiness of the analysis was considered using criteria established by Lincoln and Guba (1985).
Findings
Thematic analysis identified six themes, namely, the challenging nature of the work, interactions with prisoners, staff interactions, inadequate resources, staff support and development and coping strategies. Key findings include managing distress, self-harm and violence and limited resources presenting challenges. Role variety and opportunities to support prisoners were reported as positive. A variety of coping strategies were identified. Wider availability of supervision and reflective practice was suggested by staff.
Practical implications
Recommendations for increased staff support are made. Suggestions for future research investigating methods to increase rewarding aspects of work within prisons are given.
Originality/value
This analysis adds to the limited body of qualitative research investigating prison staff experiences; in particular, aspects of the work that they find rewarding such as the role variety and opportunities to make positive changes to prisoners’ lives. Novel coping strategies were identified, including cognitive reframing and behavioural strategies for managing stress, which could be encouraged to increase resilience.
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Jane Farmer, Tracy De Cotta, Katharine McKinnon, Jo Barraket, Sarah-Anne Munoz, Heather Douglas and Michael J. Roy
This paper aims to explore the well-being impacts of social enterprise, beyond a social enterprise per se, in everyday community life.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the well-being impacts of social enterprise, beyond a social enterprise per se, in everyday community life.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory case study was used. The study’s underpinning theory is from relational geography, including Spaces of Wellbeing Theory and therapeutic assemblage. These theories underpin data collection methods. Nine social enterprise participants were engaged in mental mapping and walking interviews. Four other informants with “boundary-spanning” roles involving knowledge of the social enterprise and the community were interviewed. Data were managed using NVivo, and analysed thematically.
Findings
Well-being realised from “being inside” a social enterprise organisation was further developed for participants, in the community, through positive interactions with people, material objects, stories and performances of well-being that occurred in everyday community life. Boundary spanning community members had roles in referring participants to social enterprise, mediating between participants and structures of community life and normalising social enterprise in the community. They also gained benefit from social enterprise involvement.
Originality/value
This paper uses relational geography and aligned methods to reveal the intricate connections between social enterprise and well-being realisation in community life. There is potential to pursue this research on a larger scale to provide needed evidence about how well-being is realised in social enterprises and then extends into communities.
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Abe Oudshoorn, Tanya Benjamin, Tracy A. Smith-Carrier, Sarah Benbow, Carrie Anne Marshall, Riley Kennedy, Jodi Hall, C. Susana Caxaj, Helene Berman and Deanna Befus
People experiencing homelessness are uniquely vulnerable to the impacts of a pandemic, such as COVID-19. Therefore, governments across Canada have been implementing a patchwork of…
Abstract
Purpose
People experiencing homelessness are uniquely vulnerable to the impacts of a pandemic, such as COVID-19. Therefore, governments across Canada have been implementing a patchwork of responses to address the needs of those who are homeless at this time. The purpose of this study is to both compile and assess the varying responses by exploring the breadth of actions presented in print and social media.
Design/methodology/approach
Rapid review methodology is a means of compiling a breadth of information to compare and contrast policy implementations. Herein, the authors provide a comprehensive rapid review of responses to homelessness considered through a health equity lens.
Findings
Based on policy implementations to date, the authors offer eight recommendations of potentially promising practices among these responses. Situated within a capabilities approach, the authors call upon governments to provide a full breadth of responses to ensure that both health and housing are better protected and obtained during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originality/value
This paper presents the first comprehensive review of local government responses to homelessness in the context of COVID-19.
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Abstract
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Kerry L. Priest and Sarah Donley
This application brief describes the exploratory assessment of a mentoring program between current students and alumni of a leadership studies minor program. We connect leadership…
Abstract
This application brief describes the exploratory assessment of a mentoring program between current students and alumni of a leadership studies minor program. We connect leadership education research and practice in two ways: first, we describe a process of qualitative program evaluation to inform program best practices and improvement. In doing so, we also highlight the value of an alumni mentoring program as a strategic component of leadership education. Our findings demonstrate the mentoring program supported students’ leadership development in the areas of career transition, personal growth, and application to “real-life.” Recommendations are offered for creating formal and informal mentoring opportunities.
Tracy A. Smith-Carrier, Sarah Benbow, Andrea Lawlor and Andrea O'Reilly
The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of parents who have full professorial positions (in faculties of engineering and nursing) in universities in Ontario…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of parents who have full professorial positions (in faculties of engineering and nursing) in universities in Ontario, Canada, with a particular focus on the ways in which gender shapes professors' parenting experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
We employ a case study methodology involving quantitative and qualitative data collected from a survey emailed to full professors in Ontario.
Findings
Data from the study reveal that numerous strategies, resources (e.g. informal social support networks, supportive partners) and institutional supports (i.e. pausing the tenure clock after child birth) are required to assist academics to meet the extensive demands of their positions, while they perform caregiving responsibilities for their children.
Research limitations/implications
The protected ground of family status is inconsistently applied in Canadian human rights policy, considerably reducing its transformative potential. Yet, while family status gains greater recognition in rights-based practice, we argue that it be added to forthcoming institutional equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) action plans across post-secondary institutions to better ensure equity for mothers who shoulder significant paid and unpaid work responsibilities.
Originality/value
While there is literature on parenting in academia, family status is rarely featured as an intersection of interest in EDI research. This article aims to fill this gap.
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Sarah Louise Carroux, Timo Busch and Falko Paetzold
This paper aims to empirically describe the general characteristics and the investment behavior of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) who pursue impact investing.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to empirically describe the general characteristics and the investment behavior of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) who pursue impact investing.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected from members of a global impact investor network, using an online questionnaire, a portfolio-data collection tool and semi-structured interviews.
Findings
Wealthy private impact investors are largely similar in terms of their general characteristics and investment behavior, but they diverge in their interest in specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They tend to be strongly values-driven and to adopt an investment time horizon of 7+ years for their impact investments, which they expect to yield financial returns that are no different from those of traditional investments. Interestingly, these investors perceive the well-established sustainable investing strategies of exclusion, environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration and best-in-class as not having high impact-generating potential.
Practical implications
Suggestions are provided about how wealthy private investors could use the findings to improve their impact investment decisions. Advice is offered to investment professionals on how to optimize impact investment products and services for this economically and societally highly relevant target group.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first scientific study to investigate the general characteristics and investment behavior of HNWIs who pursue impact investing. HNWIs have great relevance for financial markets yet they are out of reach for most researchers. As a result, they are poorly understood, and apparently also often misunderstood, which has substantial economic and social implications that this paper helps mitigate.
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Abbeygail Jones, Shuo Zhang, Amy Woodburn, Sarah Dorrington, Alison Beck and Helen Winter
The health and well-being of healthcare staff came into focus during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as already strained workforces responded to new and…
Abstract
Purpose
The health and well-being of healthcare staff came into focus during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as already strained workforces responded to new and additional challenges. Organisational support services made efforts to adapt staff support provision. However, most literature and recommendations are centred on surveys of medical and clinical staff. The present study included staff across clinical and non-clinical workforces within a mental health trust over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic to date, and aimed to understand workforces' access to and experiences of organisational support.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study was a qualitative one using convenience and purposive sampling. Semi-structured individual and group interviews were conducted using a topic guide. Reflexive thematic analysis was used in a phenomenological framework to analyse data.
Findings
35 staff, broadly representative of the trust workforce, were recruited. Six global themes summarised the experiences of staff in relation to work practices, personal well-being and support access over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: COVID-19 disease, interpersonal relationships, individual considerations, change, working environment and support.
Practical implications
The findings from the study have implications for organisational support provisions for healthcare workers and the dissemination of these services.
Originality/value
Acknowledging the multi-various experiences of different workforces within National Healthcare Service organisations and how these change over time will facilitate innovative changes to staff support provision.
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